REBUILDING AFTER RACISM. Family cousin Tito Thepkaysone cooks up pad
thai at Love & Thai restaurant in Fresno, California. The Thai
restaurant is back in operation after being wrongfully accused of
abusing a dog to turn it into meat. It may be astonishing to some that a
claim rooted in a racist stereotype took down a restaurant three years
after "Stop Asian Hate" became a rallying cry. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
RESTAURANT RECOVERY. David Rasavong stands by a mural depicting his
family’s journey from Laos to San Francisco and then to Fresno, in his
restaurant, called Love & Thai, in Fresno, California. Rasavong’s body
still tenses up when recounting how a so-called animal welfare crusader
in May implied on social media that his 7-month-old restaurant, Tasty
Thai, owned a pitbull tied up at a home next door. What’s more, they
claimed the dog would eventually be meal fodder. By the next day,
vitriolic comments, voicemails, and calls rained down. (AP Photo/Richard
Vogel)
Asian Reporter web extra, February 5, 2024
California restaurant’s comeback shows how
outdated, false Asian stereotype of dog-eating persists
By Terry Tang
The Associated Press
FRESNO, Calif. — David Rasavong’s cultural pride is evident all
throughout his restaurant.
It’s on the wall of family portraits and where a stunning mural
depicts his family’s journey from Laos to California. It’s on the menu
filled with Lao and Thai dishes like the crispy coconut rice salad of
Nam Khao and the stir-fried rice noodles of Pad See Ew.
And it’s in the fact that Love & Thai in Fresno, California,
restaurant is open at all. A baseless accusation grounded in a racist
stereotype about Asian food using dog meat brought a six-month barrage
of harassment so heated that Rasavong, 41, closed down its previous
location over fears for his family’s safety.
His earlier restaurant had itself only been open for seven months
when a so-called animal welfare crusader in May implied on social media
that a pitbull tied up at an unconnected home next door was going to be
served on the menu.
A day after the initial commentary, vitriolic statements, voicemails,
and calls rained down. Rasavong’s body still tenses up when recounting,
in particular, a call from an elderly woman.
"She was so disgusted by me and yelling and screaming, and the only
thing I can remember hearing her say at the end was ‘Go back to the
country you came from you dog-eating mother-effer,’" Rasavong recently
told The Associated Press.
Within days, he closed that restaurant because it no longer felt safe
between the harassment and people loitering in the parking lot outside
of business hours.
The false accusation tapped into a longstanding slur against Asian
cuisines and cultures that has persisted in the U.S. for over 150 years,
dating back to the xenophobia that grew in the U.S. after Chinese
immigrants started arriving in more visible numbers in the 1800s and
other Asian communities followed. It’s also one that Asian American
communities are fighting against.
It may be astonishing to some that a claim rooted in a racist
stereotype took down a family’s restaurant three years after "Stop Asian
Hate" became a rallying cry. But for many Asian Americans and Pacific
Islanders, it’s something they’ve heard before as an insult or under the
guise of a "joke," along with other negative reactions to the actual
foods of their cultures. In December, a comedian received some backlash
for dressing like a UPS delivery driver and walking into an Asian
restaurant with caged puppies for a social media video.
There is hope though that more people will learn to tell truth from
trope. Since the pandemic first fueled anti-Asian hostilities, AAPI
communities themselves have tried to take control of the narrative that
Asian food is "dirty," "weird" yet "exotic." Furthermore, the appetite
to learn about food from the Asian diaspora has only grown across
traditional and new media.
Still, there were moments where Rasavong felt like nobody, even
media, was on his side. He said a few reporters approached him assuming
the claims were true.
But he soon received tons of community support, and the closure ended
up being a new beginning.
A shopping center property manager offered him the chance to take
over a suite vacated by another restaurant. Nkundwe P. van
Wort-Kasyanju, a graphic designer in the Netherlands, and Los Angeles-
based interior designer Danny Gonzales proffered their services for
free. Hana Luna Her, a local artist, painted the mural. By the November
3 grand opening of the new space, Love & Thai definitely felt the love.
The place was bustling all day, Rasavong said, and the city presented a
proclamation.
Rasavong is holding onto the belief that he went through this whole
saga for a reason.
"There’s a journey that we’re supposed to go on," said Rasavong, who
declined to say if he’ll pursue legal action. "Don’t get me wrong.
People need to realize this business is not easy ... But you know, we
believe in what we’re doing and so far so good."
In actuality, consuming dog meat is something that has happened in
various parts of the world for centuries, where they weren’t seen as
domesticated family pets, said Robert Ku, author of Dubious Gastronomy:
The Cultural Politics of Eating Asian in the USA. Greeks and Romans
referenced it. The French also ate dog meat during World War II.
But when Chinese immigrants came to the U.S., it was linked to them
as part of "the myths that the Chinese were these bizarre people who had
bizarre diets," Ku said. "It was one of the attractions of actually
going to Chinese restaurants back in the day because it came with
‘danger.’"
As other Asian immigrant groups came, the stereotype spread to
include them.
"This is a real just blurring of the Asian identity where it doesn’t
matter if you’re Thai or Korean or Vietnamese or Cambodian. You’re all
the same," Ku said.
Along with the false allegation of eating dog meat, Asian Americans
and Pacific Islanders over the generations have often faced disgust and
worse from others when they’ve brought their cultures’ foods from home
to public spaces like school or work.
They’re taking steps to fight back, like in 2021, when San
Francisco-Bay Area-based writers Diann Leo-Omine, Anthony Shu, and
Shirley Huey self-published Lunchbox Moments, a compilation of over two
dozen personal essays and illustrations that raised $6,000 for charity.
The project became "a powerful thing for all of us," Leo-Omine said.
"We tried to show it’s not always about being in relation to being
American or being white or assimilated," she said. "You can have moments
of joy, too … I hope that it opened people’s minds a little bit more —
or made them want to try new foods."
It’s actually been a big year in publishing and food media for Asian
cuisine. Publishers Weekly dedicated a feature in August entirely to
Chinese and Taiwanese food after observing nine new cookbooks on the
subjects were coming out this year. Several of the authors grew up
outside of Asia.
The titles range from Vegan Chinese Food, to Kung Food and A Very
Chinese Cookbook, from America’s Test Kitchen. Also, children’s book
author Grace Lin released Chinese Menu, which relays folklore behind
favorite Chinese American dishes. They all share personal anecdotes and
readers often seem drawn to "personality-driven" cookbooks, said Carolyn
Juris, features editor.
"It’s not just about the recipes. It’s about the stories behind them
and I think people respond to that," Juris said.
Like any other culture, Asian cultures encompass many different
regional cuisines and nuances. With the growing Asian diaspora, it’s not
strange that so many cookbooks can be mined and "publishers are savvy
enough to know that there is a market for these books," Juris added.
Back at Love & Thai, Rasavong is busy filling online orders for a
waiting third-party delivery driver. He is optimistic about keeping up
business now that the initial hoopla around his restaurant renaissance
has calmed down. Rasavong also hopes his situation will remind others to
think before they speak.
"People say these jokes and they think it’s just fun and just
light-hearted," he said. "There are certain things that you shouldn’t
say that really do cross a line."
Tang is a Phoenix-based member of AP’s Race and
Ethnicity team.
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